In The Ruins of the Reich

Douglas Botting

Discussing the Iraq conflict here a few months ago I seem to remember unfavourable comparisons being made with Germany in 1945. It's commonly thought that the Western Allies not only made a great success of the German occupation but also conducted themselves with singular virtue. Botting's history is an interesting challenge to this comfortable notion. And comparisons with the way Iraq is being handled, while they shouldn't be overdone, are irresistable.

Botting focuses mainly on the British and American zones. I think it's fair to say the Russian sector is off his radar but we can take it as read that it was like the American and British sectors except worse. He claims rationing in the British sector was well below the calorific intake required to prevent starvation (though he concedes that Britain, the victorious power, was barely able to feed its own population). He describes brutal housing conditions for the bombed out population of Hamburg. The few houses left standing were often requisitioned for British soldiers. The British worked out that one hour was the optimum warning time to give a German when taking over her house (less than one hour didn't allow her time to pack the single permitted suitcase, while allowing more than an hour generated panic and indecision).

In the American sector he describes looting, violence and rapes systematically carried out for months after the end of the war. The American pursuit of ex-nazis was particularly shambolic and characterised by arrogance and poor local intelligence. It seems the worst behaved occupation troops (in the western sector at least) were Algerians and Mauritanians attached to the French army. The best behaved were the African-Americans.

Botting identifies two events which marked the turning point. The first was currency reform which began West Germany on the road to economic recovery. The second was the Berlin airlift in 1948. This event marked a huge shift in perceptions. Americans could for the first time perceive ordinary Germans as victims rather than perpetrators. For their part the Germans were given a huge demonstration of America's commitment to their liberty and their defence.